News

This one just started running (and rowing) on TV recently ! Famed Director Joachim Back and Stink Films decided to shoot the latest Lincoln SUV commercial with us, at stunning locations found in Vancouver, and over on Vancouver Island. Check out the latest edit at the following link: http://meansofproduction.ca/our-work

Director Martin de Thurah really knocked it out of the park with this new Far Cry 5 commercial we did for Ubisoft and Henry - Paris ! Filmed a few hours outside of Vancouver in Merritt, British Columbia, this one is both pretty sinister, and a ton of fun. The internet has been busy talking about it non-stop, and the shots DP Khalid Mohtaseb pulled off were amazing. Big thanks to DDB Agency for this amazing spot. Check out the two commercials we shot in full over at the "Our Work" link here: http://meansofproduction.ca/our-work

Wow ! Keith McCarthy at Stink Films came to Vancouver to direct a really great Nike Hockey commercial. We were very excited to put together this one, which had a ton of fun stunts and some great cameos by Bo Horvat, Melissa Bishop, Spencer O'Brien, and Mark McMorris ! View the Video in "Our Work" at http://meansofproduction.ca/our-work

We were lucky to have Knucklehead and Daniel Barber come to Vancouver to film this wicked Autotrader spot. This commercial had the great Tim Hudson (DP), the Russian / Ultimate Arm, some tricky Precision Driving, and of course, a whole lot of cars ! See the final spot over at http://meansofproduction.ca/our-work

Director Eliot Rausch (with Stink Films) and DP Ben Loeb just shot a few really great spots for Southern New Hampshire University in Vancouver and we were very happy to help get these done. The kind of spots that really tug on the heartstrings - check them out over in Our Work here: http://meansofproduction.ca/our-work/stink/stink-films-snhu

Working with Director Andreas Nilsson and Biscuit to get this spot out in time for Christmas was a blast ! Santa, Reindeer, Elves, a repossessed sleigh, some crazy memes, and a ton of copper top batteries all came together and the result can be seen over in the Our Work section here: http://meansofproduction.ca/our-work

Biscuit and Director Isaiah Seret set their sights on Vancouver to shoot this commercial for Spectrum. We filmed for 7 busy days and came away with a multitude of really great spots. DP Alwin Kuchler really set the tone as well - check out one of the spots in the Our Work section here: http://meansofproduction.ca/our-work/biscuit-filmworks/biscuit-spectrum

Wow ! Working with Saman Kesh and Skunk to create the various looks needed for these General Mills spots was impressive and everyone was up to the task ! Production Designer Patrice Vermette built just the most amazing game show set here in Vancouver. In the end there were 4 spots, and one of our favorites can be found by clicking this link: http://meansofproduction.ca/our-work/skunk-us/skunk-general-mills

Was it all a dream... or was it that final glass of Whiskey? Last summer Javier Bardem, Don Cheadle, and Chris Evans joined Chivas in support of social entrepreneurs around the world.

Vancouver provided the backdrop and director Alex Henry Rubin and Smuggler UK filled out the team. It took six full nights of shooting and lots of hard work by a monster cast and crew to bring this project to reality.

Directors Damien & Leila Laurant made frozen bubbles in the forests of Whistler. The process to freeze the bubbles require the right bubble mix with just enough corn syrup, sub zero temperatures and a Sony 4K Television. Fun!

Director, Henry-Alex Ruben from Smuggler, London made headlines with his real, grity & pitiless take on the Sochi Paralympic games. Sponsored by Samsung, Henry-Alex brings home the message that despite our problems...losing is the Paralympian's only real problem. The commercial was filmed in beautiful Banff National Park & Calgary, Alberta. Well done team!

Our Framestore friends Director's David Mellor, Murray Butler & Producer Paul Middlemiss was back for Snadragon 2.0. The scripts required all 4 seasons, mountains, city, a wide variety of Talent and reindeer! Where else but Vancouver can you find it all. Have a look on "Our Work" page.

Our friends from Blink Productions, UK knew where to go when they were dealt the hand to shoot the latest commercial for ASUS. Talented Director, Noah Harris took the reins and managed to create a seemless narrative that swicthes back & forth between the mundane world of a white collar worker and the intrigue of a secret agent. The spot earned a front page review in the Shots Magazine. Well done all!

Julia Ormond, Jenna Dewan-Tatum, Rachel Boston & Madchen Amick graced the shores of Minaty Bay, along the sea to Sky Highway just outside Vancouver to shoot the Promotional Video for the TV Series "Witches of East End" - currently shooting in Vancouver.

Director Kevin Robinson from Juniper Jones, New York teamed up with Means of Production and together they lit up the shore! Click on the image above to see how we did it...

Go Team! The short film that keeps on giving we call it here at MOP. Again, "Shhh...a Short Tale" took the stage at the Leo Awards winning Best Production Design (Athea Boyes, Production Designer) and Best Short Film (Producers - Freddy Chavez, Shervin Shoghian & Heinrich Beisheim). This film has reached 14 film festivals & winning best short at the Guanajuato Film Festival in Mexico, best short at the Rhode Island Film Festival and was accepted at the Cannes Intl Film Festival 2013. Go! Shhh!

MOP Director Pedro Romero & Producer Heinrich Beisheim was at the helm of this 60" commercial for Concord Pacific that tells the story of future real estate developments in the city of Surrey (a short drive from Vancouver) in 2025. Work in Vancouver, hop on the Speed-Train to Surrey & enjoy your resort lifestyle at Park Avenue. Means of Production prepped, filmed & edited this spot in under 3 weeks. Well done team!

The Director Christian Lyngbye said: "I am very happy and proud to inform you all that less then 18 hours after we wrapped our night shoot in Vancouver after 4 incredible shooting days in BC and Vancouver, and less then 3 weeks after the job got confirmed, where we managed to prep and shoot 2 spots, we presented our edit of the BIKE spot and got a very happy approval from the client. This makes me proud and it is all based on the incredible and dedicated engagement from all of you people that made it happen. We improvised, we changed our minds and directions various times, but I never felt anyone was not part of the struggle. It is funny we now have a spot that consists of more then half the scenes that was never storyboarded but the agency and client felt the spirit we carried on the set and trusted us. Unusual in our business today."!

...to television screens around the world! This multi tasking amphibian was brought to life by directors & VFX artists Dave Mellor & Murray Butler from Framestore. The commercial for Snapdragon was shot in the surroundings of Vancouver. Medieval villages, farmers, covert anti missile carriers, fried fish, advertising boards & modern city folks all testified to seeing the creature in their backyard. Beware! The Dragon also interrupted the pages of The Little Black Book: http://lbbonline.com/news/ogilvy-introduces-qualcomm-snapdragon

Bates Motel is the life story of Norman Bates...the fictional character in Alfred Hitchcock's famous film, Psycho - based on the novel written by Robert Bloch. Director's Doerneman & Bailey from LoyalKaspar set the tone for the TV series with these promo trailers. Can't wait for the show!

Cirque du Soleil is in Vancouver until 20 January 2013 with their production called "Amaluna". Means of Production facilitated a film shoot for the show with Montreal based Jimmy Lee TV. Producer Jacob said: "It is really, really good. When I saw the off-line I kept saying nice...nice...NICE...that's so great!" Thanks Jacob!

Director Christopher Hewitt & our friends from Knucklehead, UK took Lincoln's concept to the next level & brought it to life in British Columbia's lakes, mountains, roads, back-roads, rooftops, backyards, Whistler's peak to peak gondola, aiport runways & more - it was more than just a car commercial. MOP Producer Ed Callaghan took on this job & ran with it for 10 challenging shoot days. A job well done by all the crew & talent involved. The pay-off is a Shots Contender nomination.

Our super-hero friends from Biscuit Filmworks came to Vancouver to shoot a commercial for Mini Cooper with Aaron Ruell as the director and DELL, directed by Philippe Andre. Good locations, good talent, good value for money. Please go to "Our Work" page to see the spots.

Three Fishermen: a Brit, Brazilian & Canadian battle it out in the rivers & oceans of 3 continents - Europe & North & South America to see who can catch the biggest fish. Fun? Fish? Plenty of it! The fish in the picture was one of the 10 biggest Sturgeon fish ever caught in the Fraser River outside Vancouver - it weighs almost 1000lbs, 10.5 feet long & is over 150 years old. The old fish was just catching its breath before we had to let it go...

The amazingly wonderfully smart and hard working Ole Peters won the hearts and minds of The Richards Group and Chrysler with five epic spots for the 2013 RAM 1500 truck. Film star & super nice guy Sam Elliott got to see the beauties off the West Coast of Vancouver Island and everyone else visited pretty much every town, field, river, mountain and coffee shop in British Columbia & Alberta. 8000km on the Director's SUV! Unforgettable.

Neale Ferguson from Notorious LA paid us a visit again! This time to produce a series of spots for Pacific Life. He teamed up with DOP/Director Marco Mazzei who brought the scripts to life with stunning visuals & approach. The clients from Pacific Life needed sunshine, a clean ocean & fantastic crew...where else than in British Columbia.

Yes, Brad Pitt has a brother - Mr Doug Pitt traveled to Vancouver to shoot a wonderful spot for Virgin Mobile. Directed by The Glue Society from Sydney, Australia - Doug stars in this new campaign by Virgin as the 'not-so-famous' Pitt being treated as a celeb! It's a good one...

Chris Palmer from Gorgeous (UK) was looking for snow & found it in The Rockies, Alberta. The commercial was filmed in Canada, Brazil & China. The Canadian portion included all the young school kids having fun at school - it's true!

Skunk USA teamed up with Director Raf Wathion from Belgium to shoot for Nissan. 3 Remote control chassis were the stars fo this ad as the challenge was to show the bodywork of the vehicle coming apart for closer inspection. A technical shoot made possible by a super dedicated team of proffesionals.

2012 was off to a roaring start with two great jobs for Scandinavia in February and March. We started with snowmobiles on water (see below) for Nokian tires and went straight to 8 days of filming for Vattenfall (the Swedish power company) and their young Olympians sponsorship program. Producer Lina Stenberg and director Thomas Hilland from Partizan Stockholm chose Vancouver because they needed sailing AND skiing at the same time (as well as fencing, gymnastics, cycling, and hockey). We had fresh snow on the mountains 20 minutes from downtown and blue skies and fair winds just up the shore from the hotel. The spots required amateur athletes on the path to Olympic competition from all the sports and Vancouver delivered. It's all here. Click on the image above to see the summer spots. We'll put the winter ones up in the fall. And such nice people, our northern brethren.

Producer Marko Antilla and director Jalmari Helander from Helsinki-based Mjolk came to escape the frozen lakes of Finland to show off the traction of Nokian tyres. MOP just happened to find "snowmobiler on water extraordinaire" Kalle Johansson who pulled off some tricks none of us thought possible. And the spectacular lake and snow-capped mountain location at Golden Ears park, 40 minutes from the city, gave us everything else we could ask for. Great cast, too, and the usual AAA crew. Much fun.

Record TV from Brazil comes to Kamloops in northern British Columbia to film a portion of their TV series on the story of King David from the Bible. Means of Production funded the tax credits & provided production service. King David has been a success and has achieved top ratings on the local network surveys in Brazil...

Filip Engstrom and the Smuggler gang brought a bouncy, uplifting and soapy shoot to Vancouver for BBH London and Mentos. Great creative and delivery. Pedro Romero, our indefatigable Production Designer extraordinaire delivered a fantastic set and DP Christian Haag really made it come alive. Another one of our favourites.

The indomitable Anthony Atanasio & Valerie Martinez brought their HSI and TBWA crew to Toronto to film a rather large shoot for the new Nissan Micra. Tom Whitehead produced for HSI and Jeremy Goold came along for the lovely weather. Toronto was really at its best, all the gear was there (Russian Arm, Cineflex, Electric Camera Car, Giraffe Crane, etc.). Great job.

Daniel Barber and the Knucklehead posse were back to shoot 5 days for SAP in Canada before heading on to Italy for another 7 (!). Once again we used the whole province of BC to bring you the world of SAP: snowy mountains, grassy plains, sunny beaches, football fields, driving ranges, and on and on.

Exactly the kind of shoot we like to do. The 2nd ever 3D car shoot in the world. The first time a 3D rig is placed on the Russian Arm, and eight days of glory. Man, that was a great production. Pascal Bohlen and Hochkantfilm brought the super nice director duo RAD-ISH to the city, beaches, mountains, and plains of BC for a sizable shoot for the new BMW X3. The results were so good the car is now on 9 month back-order. Next!

Christine-Marie Gardeweg, producer for BM8 said it was the nicest pictures she's ever shot. The commercial showcases the new Mercedes SLS AMG - a gull-wing, made-for-speed, gravity-defying car. Check it out! in 'Our Work'

Joern Heittman, Jürgen Krause, and Peter Krause brought some very colourful boards to Manning Park and downtown Vancouver. The boards required a frozen lake, falling snow, clear skies, and beautiful scenery: Snow please, from 7am to 1pm, then clearing to bright blue skies. Overnight we'd like some new fresh snow and blue skies again in the morning. And that's exactly what happened. Amazing.

Florian dusted off the jodphurs to direct for the famous steel and manufacturing giant. The gang shot in Calgary and the boomtown of Fort McMurray where temperatures reached minus 30˚ Celsius! Join the adventure!

rkcr/Y&R had a script that shouted Canada, Johnny wanted Kazahkstan, and James Bland, Johnny's producer, said "let's talk to Dave at Means of Production in Vancouver. He knows everything". The result is one of the most fun, exciting epic commercials many of us have ever worked on. Yeah.

Daniel Barber directed, Matthew Brown produced and John Lynch DP'd a really big, fun project. Tony Fernandes was the AD. The very talented PM Russell Hasenberg came along and local super star PM Kristi Lippa kept it all smooth and calm. We were in the stage, on the rolling hills of the BC interior at sunrise, and on the roof of a parking garage making a whole lot of rain. All the toys, all the time. Nice.

Stewart Parr directed with Igor Jadue-Lillo shooting with the Phantom high speed camera. Very cool. Jill Sartore produced for MOP and did a fantastic job. Mandy Kothe produced for Tony Petersen and was a joy to work with. So great to have the Tony Petersen gang back again this year.

Sabine Lippert, Executive Producer at NSF (and the most wonderful EP on the planet) and Susan Barenberg (an incredibly lovely producer - I get goosebumps just thinking of the two of them) brought one of the nicest shoots in memory to Vancouver (just ask Sabine!). The cast came from Vancouver, Toronto, Montréal, Paris, and South Africa. Some people even got Canadian Wood!

The team travelled from Germany to Sri Lanka to Vancouver and home again to film an internet and cinema commercial for Rapid Share online file sharing. Ask Kristi to show you her pictures if you want to know what kind of time they had. Read all about it.

The MOP crew were at their finest working with Alexandra le Gentil (say no more) who produced for Getty. Christopher McMullen also came from France to keep an eye on things. Laurent Picard art directed for TBWA Paris (a saint of a man!). What a great bunch of people and so much fun! Hope to see you all again very soon.

The 4 day shoot involved Bison in Cochrane, helicopters in Drumheller, dinosaur bones near Brooks, and a whole lot of steak. Dan Landin was the most excellent DP. Fergus Brown produced with his usual Scottish extravagance. The extremely nice Anne Hoffman produced for Grabarz. And the Calgary crew were their usual wonderfulness. Please come back, everyone, it was one of the nicest shoots ever.

Christmas comes but many times a year here in Vancouver. Colin Gregg directed and the sun was out! Now that's news. Naturally Kristi, Jeff, Tara, Dave, Chris & Pedro were there, too. Plus the added bonus of Tess! Great snow effects were supplied by HollyNorth. Therapy is good for you; take lots.

Until this Vancouver had almost everything. Now Vancouver has it all. Local Heli-DP/Operator AJ Visak is the best Wescam/Pictorvision shooter in the West. Look for his work on the next VW Touareg ad from John Dolan.

About Us

Means of Production is a service production company based in Vancouver and covering all of Canada. We help produce television commercials and programming, feature films, music videos/promos, photography and corporate projects. MOP was established in 2001 by David Bouck and has become one of the top service production companies in the country.

MOP Films

MOP Films works with foreign production companies to co-produce or service feature films and television series in Canada.